Palau Chessmate: (1174) BULLET CHESS BEFORE RAPID ON MARCH 20 (TBN-March 21, 2016)

: LITO MARCOS AT THE MODERN CHESS ACADEMY IN RUSSIA

This is what Judit Polgar is mentioning in this article –the bathrooms have chess motifs on the tiles. Lito Marcos, Board 1 player of PNG in 2010 WCO, proudly poses at the motifs. Polgar didn’t mention the chess board that was signed by all former world chess champions. In that Russia Olympiad, Roberto and Lito renewed their friendship that started in the 2009 Oceania Zonal Chess Championship in Australia.

(Contributed photo by CM Joselito Marcos)

**This photo was not published in Tia Belau because of lack of space)

BULLET CHESS BEFORE RAPID

ON MARCH 20

AS SUGGESTED by Rustum Cabuso, there will be a Bullet chess competition before the start of 2016 Palau Rapid Chess Championship on March 20 at Surangel Campaign Headquarters, within Mason’s Hardware premises, starting at 2pm. Bullet chess time control, according to Palau Ratings Officer Jamie Kenmure of Australia, is the fastest blitz chess in the world with a minute for each player to finish the game + 1 second increment.

The chess clocks that Palau Chess Federation usually used don’t work with 1 sec. increment so it is set at 1 minute + 2 sec. increment. Lightning Chess time control is 5 minutes flat or 3 min. + 2 seconds increment. The 2016 Palau Blitz Chess Championship used the 5 minutes + 3 seconds increment format.

Registration for PRCC is $5.00 for members and $10.00 for non-members while in the bullet it will be $2.00 with the champion pocketing the half of the registration fee like what have been done before the start of the 2016 PBCC, where Tito Cabunagan won $12.00. The other half will be added to PCF fund.

In this Rapid Chess Championship, there will be 9-round Swiss system format for the Open while the women and junior division will be integrated with the same 9-round Swiss system. If there are only 10 contestants, it will be single round-robin. The participants must play 2 games every Sunday in this 5-week tourney where there will be one game only on the 5^th week to be followed by awarding of medals to the top 3 finishers in both divisions.

In the 2011 FIDE World Cup held at Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, Judit Polgar played Sergey Karjakin, the youngest player ever to be a GM (Grandmaster) at the age of 12 years, in the 3^rd round with the first moves as follows: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0–0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 [Vladimir Kramnik was able to eliminate Gary Kasparov's white pieces in the London 2000 match with the help of this ambitious defense. Black is playing without castling and with the worse pawn structure, but he can lean back on the advantage of the bishop pair.]

                On the 20^th move, Karjakin made a mistake with 20...Bxe6? [Karjakin is a brilliant talent from the Ukraine, but currently playing for Russia. The change of the federation did not come cheap - the conditions for him had an implicit guarantee of the Russian government. The goal is to groom a player with the potential to win the world championship title. In the 2011 World Cup he had the bad luck of meeting Judit Polgar who was coming back after longish maternity leave at the height of her powers. The strongest woman player in history is not afraid of any opponent. The Russian hope missed the chance to apply an unusual solution. After the less appealing recapture with a pawn, chances would have remained balanced.]

            Polgar exploited this mistake till the endgame where she won after 49.f4! [The charming finish is reminiscent of the sharp intake of breath you experience at the moment, when everything is beautiful around you. White will win the pawn endgame without any effort, since the black king has to go to the far away a8–square.]

            In the next round (4^th), Polgar is facing a very strong GM from Cuba Leinier Dominguez Perez. Here is what Judit said about Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, where Roberto Hernandez and Tito Cabunagan represented Palau for the first time in an Olympiad:

            I got the chance to play in the 2011 World Cup at Khanty-Mansiysk due to having qualified from the European Championship which was organized in France, Aix les Bains during spring. Not only did I qualify but I played very well and ended up tying for first which left me with the bronze medal.

            My first visit to Siberia was in the World Cup in 2009, when the weather was very memorable; one of the nights we went back to the hotel and it was -38 Celsius! My second visit was the Olympiad in 2010. I consider it was the best organized Olympiad that I have played in (I have played in 8 Olympiads in my life so far).This was my third occasion to play in Khanty-Mansiysk (by this time I had no problems pronouncing it either:). The playing conditions were excellent, a well organized event and fantastic live coverage during the event. We played in the Chess Academy which was built specially to organize chess events. It is very modern and in different parts of the building you can feel that chess is respected and is in the center of attention, even the bathrooms have chess motifs on the tiles).

            The live coverage was something which would be fantastic to have in future events. In the playing hall there were 5 cameras following the games and the players’ facial expressions. One could really feel the tension during the games while watching the transmission live. During the round, commentaries were in two languages - in Russian and English. The press room was always ready for a live press conference. Let's move on to the game! This match was in round 4. I had won my previous matches, the first against Corrales from Cuba, round 2 against Movsesian.

            I won my first game in round 3 against Karjakin who was the number 1 seeded player of the World Cup. In game 2 Sergey was not able to equalize the match and I moved on to round 4! Against Dominguez I had lost my first game with White, which meant that I was in a must-win situation. I did not prepare much for the game, but was very much focused on trying to play a long game and keep the game going. Thinking in the long run I might get some chances. Obviously to win with Black against a very strong and solid player as Dominguez is almost impossible.

            Polgar eventually won in 112 moves! Her commentaries of the game will be published next issue.

            Solution to last week’s puzzle No. 3829: 1. Qxg7+!! Kxg7 2. Bf6+ Kg8 3. Nh6 mate. (Congratulations to father and son Bruce and Kyle Soriano for solving this puzzle together).

            This week’s puzzle No. 3830: White to move and mates in 3 (Solution next issue)

Sources: Chess Mate by Roberto Hernandez

Tia Belau Newspaper

Pages 9-10

Volume 25

Issue 23

March 21, 2016

Chess and Music (Perfect Combination)

The Beginning of Chess in Palau

By Roberto Hernandez

To be published as a book in the future

Music and Me by Roberto Hernandez

Tia Belau Newspaper